Thousands of dead seabirds have been reported as washed ashore on black rock beach in Whittier, California earlier this month. Local biologist David Irons says he has never seen such a huge number of dead birds in such a small area before. “We have never found close to 8,000 birds on a 1-mile long beach before,” Irons said. “It is an order of magnitude larger than any records that I am aware of.” CNN reports: Biologists like Tamara Zeller have been boating around Prince William Sound scanning the beaches for dead and sickly murres. They also count the birds floating in the water, she told CNN affiliate KTVA. They cannot stop at every beach so they estimate the disturbing total of birds from the ship. When they are able to get to shore, the toll is always much higher. At Whittier, one day about two weeks ago, she counted 98 of the black and white birds while on the water. On shore she saw 284. The day’s total for January 7 was 3,000. The birds, all of a species known as the common murre, appear to have starved to death, federal wildlife officials say. Heather Renner, a supervisory biologist at [...]